Leave a comment

Hinagiku replied energetically through the voice chat, jumping down from the rooftops she had climbed in secret and attacking the enemy gnome, who seemed to be their healer.

“Hiee…”
“Yuni?!”

Seeing the small gnome girl in danger, another mercenary hiding nearby, who had swords in both hands, stood up to defend her. But then…

‘Strike Bullets, Shoot!’

Lycoris’ voice came through their voice chat again, and a barrage of light streaks came from the distance.

This time she imbued her bullets with a lot more mana, turning them into Strike Bullets with more piercing power. All those bullets flew accurately and hit the man who just stood up straight in the chest, whittling his HP down.

As soon as Hinagiku confirmed that Lycoris’ bullets hit their mark, she ran behind the gnome girl and pierced her chest, straight through her heart.

Holding her blade there, she waited for a bit until the gnome’s HP was gone and she began to fade into light particles, kicking her towards the man, who had also lost all his HP thanks to Lycoris’ bullets.

The two embraced as they fell to the ground together.

“I’m sorry…Yuni.”
“Ted…I’m the one who should say that, sorry that I couldn’t fulfill my role.”
“Let’s win the next one…”
“Mhm…”

Still hugging each other, they finished fading and left the battlefield together.

Huh, I guess not everyone was a solo player.

Frey grumbled in his mind, watching the two fade away like the protagonists of a tragic love story.

“…That left a really bad aftertaste.”
‘Why is it starting to look like we’re the bad guys..?’
“Whatever the case, now there’s only one left.”

Hinagiku said that as she turned to look at the remaining mercenary, a mage who was trying to still get a chant out, though he quickly saw that he had no chance left, so he finally raised his arms in resignation.

“Okay, I get it, just do whatever you want.”

As he was a mercenary, he had no real loyalty for the guild he was representing, so he had no issue with giving up like that.

“Alright, I’ll make it quick and painless.”
“Also…I have a message for your sniper. It was thanks to them that everything fell apart and our bonus just poofed into the ether. But they were good…”

That was a really good assessment, as it was Lycoris’ bullets that completely stopped the enemy guild from being able to move freely. Anyone could recognize her talents.

As he left that message for Lycoris, Hinagiku’s katana sliced his body to pieces, eliminating the Tokai Corporation from the tournament.

◇◇◇

Meanwhile at a pier in the harbor district…

“I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to work with you to fight Nord Glacier, you were planning to backstab us all along!”
“Wait, that arrow didn’t come from-”
“Shut up, we’ll avenge our leader!”

There were two guilds there, Salted Salmon and Hexen Schuss, who pointed their weapons at each other while arguing. They had agreed to fight alongside Lily Garden, but there was an incident on their way to the agreed meeting place.

An arrow came out of nowhere and struck the leader of Salted Salmon unprepared, who died instantly.

Since Hexen Schuss appeared shortly after, and they had an archer, Salted Salmon suspected it had been them who had gone against their alliance, leading to their current situation.

Both sides understood that there was enough mistrust between them to amend things though.

This was a battle royale, and everyone knew that whoever backstabbed first in an alliance would have the upper hand. Once both guilds began to fight, there was no stopping them anymore.

Eventually the conflict between those two guilds claimed the lives of half their members.

“That should be good enough. Do it, Cheval.”
“Aye aye, your highness…”

In the shadows of the pier, the blonde boy of Nord Glacier spoke to an archer, who had swept ashen hair, giving him the order to move. There was a slight creaking as Cheval, the archer, pulled back the string of his bow.

“We’re like…five hundred meters away? I don’t think this bow will cut it from this distance.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll compensate for it.”
“Alright…as you wish then!!”

There was a whooshing sound as the arrow was released and flew away. The arrow went up slightly for a portion of its travel, then began to fall before it reached the battlefield, and soon it became apparent that it would not reach.

But then…

“Okay Reinhard, do your thing!”
“I know… Go, Shoot Arrow!”

The young boy, Reinhard, used Shoot Arrow, which was a wind element ability obtained with 60 Points in Spiritual Magic.

Usually that ability was used to shoot arrows without the need of a bow, but as Reinhard used it in the arrow far in the distance, it regained a lot of momentum and seemed to bounce in the middle of the air.

The arrow ended up reaching the battlefield, and struck the leader of Hexen Schuss right in the chest. Soon there was another pile of Remain Light on the pier. That instantly increased the heat of the conflict between the two guilds, and Reinhardt nodded with satisfaction seeing that.

“Alright…let’s go everyone!”

As soon as Reinhard said that, the other two members of his guild, a gnome woman with a halberd, and a dragonewt with a large shield and greatsword, ran out from their hiding spot.

“So you’ll just snatch away some points when they’re already weak… Who’d think someone who looks so endearing would be so brutal.”
“Now don’t go sullying my reputation. Get out there and be useful!”
“Okayyy.”

Cheval and Reinhard spoke for a bit as they also followed the other two, but they knew there was nothing left to do in that battlefield.

And just as they had expected, by the time they arrived, the two who went out first had already cleared the battlefield and there remained nothing of Salted Salmon and Hexen Schuss.